JANUARY KEY FIGURES

		Dec 2017	Jan 2018	Dec 17 to Jan 18		Jan 17 to Jan 18
Trend
	Employed persons ('000)	12 423.6	12 446.6	23.0		3.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	717.6	720.2	2.6		-2.4	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.5	5.5	0.0	pts	-0.3	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.5	65.6	0.1	pts	0.9	pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Employed persons ('000)	12 437.5	12 453.5	16.0		3.3	%
	Unemployed persons ('000)	731.7	723.8	-7.9		0.0	%
	Unemployment rate (%)	5.6	5.5	-0.1	pts	-0.2	pts
	Participation rate (%)	65.7	65.6	-0.1	pts	1.0	pts

Employed Persons

Unemployment Rate

JANUARY KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 23,000 to 12,446,600.
• Unemployment increased 2,600 to 720,200.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.5%.
• Participation rate increased by 0.1 pts to 65.6%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 1.2 million hours (0.1%) to 1,727.0 million hours.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES (MONTHLY CHANGE)

• Employment increased 16,000 to 12,453,500. Full-time employment decreased 49,800 to 8,460,900 and part-time employment increased 65,900 to 3,992,600.
• Unemployment decreased 7,900 to 723,800. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 4,500 to 497,800 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work decreased 3,400 to 226,000.
• Unemployment rate decreased 0.1 pts to 5.5%
• Participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 65.6%.
• Monthly hours worked in all jobs decreased 24.1 million hours (1.4%) to 1,708.2 million hours.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
February 2018	22 March 2018
March 2018	19 April 2018
April 2018	17 May 2018
May 2018	14 June 2018
June 2018	19 July 2018
July 2018	16 August 2018

500TH ISSUE OF 6202.0

The release of January 2018 estimates marks the 500th issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). While the Labour Force Survey began, as a quarterly survey, in November 1960, the first publication dedicated solely to the results from the Labour Force Survey began with the release of the February 1969 issue of The Labour Force (cat. no. 6203.0).

During 1972, a new sample design based on the results from the 1971 Census was introduced into the Labour Force Survey. This process resulted in delays to the publication of estimates for November 1972 and February 1973. In order to provide timely estimates for these two periods, the ABS published The Labour Force, Preliminary Statement (cat. no. 6202.0) on 28 May 1973. This new publication featured a summary of preliminary estimates from the November 1972 and February 1973 surveys, months ahead of the full report.

Producing a preliminary publication ahead of the full quarterly report proved to be so popular that the ABS continued to publish Labour Force results in this manner on a quarterly basis until November 1977.

In February 1978 the frequency of the survey and publications increased to monthly and the Labour Force Survey was given greater prominence as the official national measure of unemployment.

Given this prominence, increasing emphasis was placed on the release of 6202.0, and the content of this publication expanded considerably over time. This eventually culminated in the 6203.0 publication, increasingly considered a lesser second release publication, being discontinued in February 2003, after 337 issues. The 6202.0 publication was renamed "Labour Force" in the April 2003 issue and is now the primary source for results from the Labour Force Survey.

To mark this special milestone, the ABS will be issuing a special edition PDF containing images of the front page of all 500 issues of 6202.0. This will be issued on 20 February 2018, under the ABS website historical releases page.

ROUNDING

Estimates of changes shown on the front cover and used in the commentary have been calculated using unrounded estimates, and may be different from, but are more accurate than, movement obtained from the rounded estimates. The graphs on the front cover also depict unrounded estimates.


SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Published estimates and movements are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. There is a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

MOVEMENTS IN SEASONALLY ADJUSTED SERIES BETWEEN DECEMBER 2017 AND JANUARY 2018
	Monthly change	95% Confidence interval
Total Employment	16 000	-44 200	to	76 200
Total Unemployment	-7 900	-46 700	to	30 900
Unemployment rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts
Participation rate	-0.1 pts	-0.5 pts	to	0.3 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, email <client.services@abs.gov.au> or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.